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Obama is not a monkey--or a Muslim
Already I am SICK TO DEATH of the constant fear-mongering and racist attacks on Obama. It's just so infuriating and so incredibly sad. One day it's "Oh he bumped fists with Michelle on his way to the podium" and the next day it's Curious George Obama t-shirts or Michelle being called his "baby mama" or some dumb YouTube video link being passed around that intones "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" about 50 times. The constant subtle message is "You can't trust this guy. He has a funny name. He's black. He might even be Muslim. He's a terrorist who will give everything to the BLACK PEOPLE! RUN!!!!!!"
I. AM. SO. SICK. OF. THIS. I am sick of racism. I am weary. I knew it would be bad, I knew there would be so much of this, and actually this is one of the best things about him being the Democratic candidate; there will be a whole lot of misunderstanding a whole lot of BS, but hopefully his candidacy will continue to stir up opportunities to discuss matters of race in this country. It's just... I don't know how much of it I am up for. Racism is a subject I have very passionate opinions about. But it's HARD to talk about, for a million reasons. For one, I feel so strongly that it's hard to form coherent sentences sometimes. Also, it's something people feel really defensive about. And the more I put into understanding POC points of view, the farther I get from the mainstream white point of view, and the harder it is to remember how to get from there to here. (Not that I have some exalted understanding, but I have put some time in.) And of course there's the fact that I am white and I really don't know much compared to your average American person of color, so I can't speak from any sort of authority and it's hard to try to educate someone else when you feel unsure of yourself. I feel the way I did for a long time about environmental issues. Since I am not a scientist and I did not have all the scientific facts at my disposal when challenged by a skeptic, plus I am not perfect on all environmental fronts (obviously!) I felt that I could not try to educate anyone else about maybe going a little greener. I'm over that one, but I feel the same way about issues of race. Plus, environmentalism can be spread by leading by example, my preferred method of any sort of change. Racism is not so easy--it must be challenged, discussed, examined; one can't just "lead by example" and hope to effect change.
Anyway. It's sad sad sad that it's come to this. But Obama has put together a page to debunk some of the more vicious myths that are circulating about him. Next time you get an email forward with some ridiculous rumor about him in it, you might want to reply with this website. It won't necessarily change anyone's mind ("Oh, but that's HIS website, he could be lying!") but at least you don't have to let the lie go unchallenged.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/
And there's always www.snopes.com.
That won't stop the monkey comparisons, either, but it's something.
I. AM. SO. SICK. OF. THIS. I am sick of racism. I am weary. I knew it would be bad, I knew there would be so much of this, and actually this is one of the best things about him being the Democratic candidate; there will be a whole lot of misunderstanding a whole lot of BS, but hopefully his candidacy will continue to stir up opportunities to discuss matters of race in this country. It's just... I don't know how much of it I am up for. Racism is a subject I have very passionate opinions about. But it's HARD to talk about, for a million reasons. For one, I feel so strongly that it's hard to form coherent sentences sometimes. Also, it's something people feel really defensive about. And the more I put into understanding POC points of view, the farther I get from the mainstream white point of view, and the harder it is to remember how to get from there to here. (Not that I have some exalted understanding, but I have put some time in.) And of course there's the fact that I am white and I really don't know much compared to your average American person of color, so I can't speak from any sort of authority and it's hard to try to educate someone else when you feel unsure of yourself. I feel the way I did for a long time about environmental issues. Since I am not a scientist and I did not have all the scientific facts at my disposal when challenged by a skeptic, plus I am not perfect on all environmental fronts (obviously!) I felt that I could not try to educate anyone else about maybe going a little greener. I'm over that one, but I feel the same way about issues of race. Plus, environmentalism can be spread by leading by example, my preferred method of any sort of change. Racism is not so easy--it must be challenged, discussed, examined; one can't just "lead by example" and hope to effect change.
Anyway. It's sad sad sad that it's come to this. But Obama has put together a page to debunk some of the more vicious myths that are circulating about him. Next time you get an email forward with some ridiculous rumor about him in it, you might want to reply with this website. It won't necessarily change anyone's mind ("Oh, but that's HIS website, he could be lying!") but at least you don't have to let the lie go unchallenged.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/
And there's always www.snopes.com.
That won't stop the monkey comparisons, either, but it's something.
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I don't like Obama. I'll be quite honest about that. But it has nothing to do with his race or his religion (whatever it may be). It has to do with the ideology of the Democratic party... I didn't like Hillary, either.
And for the record, yes, I am a Republican... but I won't vote for McCain, either.
I'll either write in Ron Paul or write in "None of the above"
And no matter who is elected - while I won't like him, he'll still be my President. I'm not one of those ass hats that kept running around crying that Bush wouldn't be their President and that they were going to leave the country (and never did... just sat there and whined). That's a Democracy for you - you get your chance to vote for what's important to you and who stands for that... and if you're in the majority, you might even get a candidate elected that you support. But if not, you suck it up for the time being and you work for change the next time around. Whining does nothing but make you look like an idiot and a brat - both of which our country has come to support for some strange reason.
/soapbox. Sorry.
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Monkey comparisons? I thought that was Bush's albatross... LOL!
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It's going to take a long time to make things better, more than a few terms in office. Hopefully some of our rights can be protected and some of the programs that have been curtailed or cut, re-funded (example: abortion, schools funding, arts funding, privacy, etc.) I still hope for national health care, but I'm not holding my breath.
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